My Frost Protectors

Can you see my frost protection?

How about now?

Poppies!

That's right, these over-run perennial borders of poppies are one of the ways I protect tender plants from late frosts. Growing in the midlands is a challenge and last week's low temperatures showed us we are still not safe from frosts.

We are tentatively planting out tomatoes and zucchinis but we're ready with the covers just in case. Unfortunately the poppies weren't tall enough six weeks ago and all but a couple of my iris buds were destroyed but I can't cover everything. Actually in those frosts we even lost things in the poly-tunnel.

Long time readers will remember that when we moved here a few years ago we had our hands full with the house and the garden (paddock!) just had to wait, so I sprinkled some poppy seed hoping to have some spring beauty and a way of keeping some weeds down and mulch at the end.

Besides being cheap, easy, showy and then providing mulch and seed ....

It helped to cut some of the winds and I found it was wonderful protection for emerging dahlias and salvias etc. They are so expendable and if they get broken or blown it really doesn't matter. At the very least they put on a colourful show after the bulbs and blossom have finished and the bees adore them. 

And next year they come again....

When Time Stood Still...

...Or at least it seemed to run slower....

We invited a father and son metal detecting duo to spend a half day at our place this month. We have broken ground on the new shed which is right beside the original stables and we have been unearthing many more "treasures" and old wagon pieces.

Here are some of the items they found and at the end is a little video they made of their exploration here.

The watch above and the silver plated lighter were exciting finds because they are often engraved items but sadly we didn't discern anything on these items.

People on this property have also been very careful with their money...

this is the only coin found, a half penny from 1944 and a penny dated 1941.

Front and back of maybe some horse tack? Anyone have any ideas?

The large piece is very heavy like lead but not terrible soft. Maybe it's a pewter? The little round item is brass and the front has a section of willow pattern on it???

Anyway, here is Jay and his dad with their video. Jay has other videos on YouTube too.

An Artist In The Garden

A few weeks ago

Luke from Gallery 81 

visited our garden a couple of times to paint en plein air.

Interestingly, he chose to set up for this cross view which fascinated me and gave me a whole new take on the garden.

When we view the garden ourselves, we tend to always take a linear view running north south which is how over the last three years I have been setting the structure and lines.

This is the central axis of the yard and typically our most common view but having Luke come into the garden taught me something very important.

And that was to stand at the corners and look back across the layers those design lines create. Enjoy the depth that each section makes as the sight looks obliquely across the garden.

THIS is how I should be looking for seating placement in the garden; providing back, middle and foreground into the view.

Luke's View has taught me to pull my focus from the straight lines of axis and also plan how the beds and paths layer across each other.

Three years ago it was a paddock. Now we are happily producing and raising lots of livestock (hard to see in the photo but the painting does have chickens and sheep in the outer paddock) and the garden has had some major structural work put in place with the crazy paving sandstone path.

Over the next 12 months we hope to have a shed built which will allow us to finally work on the side  entrance to the garden and provide us a designated BBQ and entertaining area.

Thanks to Luke for our painting but thank you also 

for helping me to see

XXX

Building A Wall - Building A Community

A dozen strangers came together over the weekend to learn an old skill and created a thing of beauty, something to last through decades, long after we are all gone. We hosted a dry stone walling workshop taught by a master stonemason from Derbyshire UK.

They learnt about the nature of the stone and that there is a lot more to building a stone wall than just balancing rock upon rock. Each piece was searched and chosen from the pile and hammered and shaped to lock in with the others.

 There is a lot of physics involved in creating a stable wall, pinned by it's own weight and tightly tied with key stones running lengthwise and as importantly, transversely.

They learnt about creating features in a wall to weather storms and erosion and livestock interactions. Neil will find it very hard to rub against at this angle! 

There is much to learn about the stonemasons craft but in just two days a group of people who had never done this before created 8m of very handsome and more importantly, safe and sound walling. I am so very proud of them and can't stop looking at it.

Our participants were all so positive and willing and from diverse backgrounds. We had teachers, builders, landscapers, passionate gardeners and old property owners. Their stories were fascinating and their journeys purposeful. Our lives touched briefly but the skills they learnt this weekend will ripple wider throughout the community like pebbles in pond water. As we watched the magnificent pink and orange sunset we couldn't help but pinch ourselves and think how fortunate we are to have these wonderful opportunities. It's hard work, and we have to "make things happen" but the payoff is rich and rewarding to make so many new friends.

Show Time!

We've often driven to the Campbell Town Show in years past. It's full of sheep and ALL about sheep for one thing. It's also the longest continuously running agricultural show in the southern hemisphere (established in 1838). As a member of the community now, I thought it would be nice to contribute to the showcase of what folks are doing. That's my pickled jalapenos up there with the blue ribbon wrap.

I've never entered a show before and there are quite a few rules and important cut off times. Make sure you study the schedule and plan ahead, get your written entries in before the due date and read carefully what you need to do for compliance. One of our big carrots won the biggest vegetable competition! Huge surprise Even if you don't think you have a winner, enter anyway, it's about coming together as a community and presenting a display of skills and interests reflecting a busy and enterprising district. 

We also entered the fruit and vegetable basket section. We want to share with people what we are growing and get people talking about heritage vegetables again for back yards.

We took out two firsts, including the Bern Scolyer memorial prize, a huge honour. Again, we didn't think we had a winner, but it is about standing shoulder to shoulder and presenting a collective interest and display. There is nothing prouder for a community than seeing an exhibition hall filled with colour, craft and produce from all ages.

Even our dear son-in-law was determined to enter his jam sponge in the Man Cake competition.

Have you ever thought about?

Just do it.

There are so many categories and your community deserves your support and sharing.

And it's FUN!

Clay Pipe Find

It was a common practice to dig a rubbish trench and dispose of small household waste. We have found buckets and buckets of broken glass from bottles to windows and oodles of china and clay fragments and even a penny token from before currency.

In the post hole this week we have found a clay pipe bowl and with the best internet trawling I can date it to around 1840-1870? which fits the settlement date of this area. These pipes were quite common everyday items and made from kaolin clay, the same used in fine china for it's fineness and whiteness.

I've located another photo of one here and they have called it a comedy/tragedy pipe. It has a distinct happy face one way and when turned upside down it has a tragic, sad bearing. The features put me in mind of the Dickensian characters illustrated at that time. Not worth much but an exciting find non the less.

Another Door Opens

As we close the door on 2016, here is a look back at the year that was for Suburban Jubilee.

If I had to sum up the year in a few words, it would have to be,

"Before And After"

Our year was mostly about renovation and they proved to be popular posts.
(Before and After - Front Room)
(Before and After - Hallway)

Not the least of which was the new kitchen finally going in at the beginning of the year just in time for the big preserving season.

We kicked some goals outside too with a major shed renovation

Saving a fortune and gaining some much needed storage space.

We built a new chook yard and a poly-tunnel.

And the gardeners loved our before and after wrap up of 12 months in the garden.

Lots of preserving from our new hedgerow; quinces, elderflowers/berries and plums.

Favourite recipes were

The (sooo easy) Date Slice from our Yarn Tour 2016

It was a very, very wet year.

We flooded

TWICE!

But no real damage done. Our dear neighbours have been heroes accommodating some of our equipment in their shed when the waters rose and we can't thank them enough. 

We lost three of our old chooks in the flood but we are working on renewing the flock. Izaac and I have purchased a couple of Black Australorp roosters who are currently in quarantine and will shortly join our girls in the hopes of some new blood. But that's a story for the new year.

Lots of knitting....

Back into soap making....

A couple of Kidney Australia fund raisers.

Lot's of cooking and entertaining.

Old school friends and family visited from the Mainland making it a very special year in the new house.

Getting the work/life balance just right!

We've learnt so much this year and embraced our seasonal life in a rural setting.

I've been grateful to the beautiful people of Campbell Town and the way they have opened their arms and welcomed us in. When pesky work permits, I am a member of the local gardening group and the singing group. We have started to forge lots of lovely friendships.

(view from the kitchen window)

Our year has been all we could have hoped for and we feel Blessed.

As we open the door on another year and another chapter,

we wish you a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Thanks for your support and friendship throughout the year.

Love T.

"Riccarton"

Just on the eastern outskirt of Campbell Town is "Riccarton", one of the first land grants in the area dating back to 1826 and owned by the Lyne family since 1909.

It is a charming serene oasis created amidst the "bones" of very old plantings where Poppy Lyne has created sweeping beds and graceful turns to compliment her great passion for bulbs and peonies. 

Not only do I draw inspiration from plantings, but also from gates and structures, the visual clues to the "doorways" from one area to another. 

This can still be achieved even in small gardens and they need not be expensive, just strong to stand the test of time, winds and to support the weight of growth.

I note with interest also the various ways of using rocks, plentiful on our own land, about the structures for borders and walkways.

An example of "cloud" pruning, a technique where branches are stripped bare and balls are encouraged at the ends, giving trees another design look all together. Their whimsical look puts me in mind of Dr, Suess illustrations.

Strong straight pruning lines and formal clipped hedges.

Box clipped into fences, columns and pillars.

Some focal points are as simple as taking advantage of a lost tree and using the stump as a column.

Or interesting weathered sculptural garden art,

Clever vistas...

Views beyond....

A memorial garden commemoration 100 years of Lyne ownership of the property.

A gate on the outer perimeter of the house garden looking further eastwards. 

The dovecote in the orchard.

The sheep brought in for drafting the lambs from the ewes look on bleating, a reminder of the importance of the wool industry in the district.

And a little further along we come to Poppy's vast plantings of peonies for cutting.

A grand passion and I can certainly understand why she is so captivated. So many varieties, both herbaceous and tree.

I could have stayed for hours but it's also nice to get back to one's own garden and get stuck in with fresh eyes and inspiration. 

Riccarton is a working farm and not a public garden. I would like to thank Poppy for very kindly showing us her garden and sharing her passion, it was a rare treat.